Sarah Ann Kuykendall and John Sherwood McBride

I have 7 John Sherwood McBride's in my tree. One is a direct great grandfather-- the father of William McGinty McBride Sr.

The subject of this sketch is another "John Sherwood McBride." Born in 1824, this John Sherwood was a 1st cousin of great great grandfather, Rev. William McBride. Their fathers were the two oldest sons of Sarah Brock and James McBride of Tennessee. By the late 1850's John Sherwood's family had already laid roots in north Texas when our family was moving into Louisiana.

John Sherwood McBride, married a Kuykendall in 1850, Hunt County Texas. His bride's name was Sarah Ann Kuykendall. She was born in Marion, Alabama in 1836 to Abel Kuykendall and Elizabeth Menasco Kuykendall. Some references call him Abraham Abel Kuykendall. His trail is somewhat cold but many indicate his father was John Kuykendall a grandson of our 7th great grandfather Leur Jacobson Van Kuykendall.

I'm looking for descendants of Sarah Ann Kuykendall and John McBride whose DNA may match me on both sides or at least Mom's side to help prove that Kuykendall lineage. It's almost a given, however. The story you read about the name "Kuykendall" is that it originated with one man (Leur) after he migrated to the colonies. The name does not exist in the old world except as a place name. So, it is generally accepted that all Kuykendall's descend from that small group in New Amsterdam/ New York that created the surname (Van Kuykendall or "from Kuykendall") to appease the British tax authorities. Dutch immigrants had no surnames. So surely, Sarah Ann's Kuykendall's are the same as ours-- it's just a question of how far back.

It is likely, John and Sarah Ann knew each other as children in Itawamba County, Mississippi or maybe even earlier in Alabama. Their families both spent the 1830's in Itawamba, but they did not marry until the Kuykendall and McBride families finally settled in Hunt County Texas.

When the war rolled around, John and Sarah Ann were well rooted in Hunt County with several children. John was 38 years old. He enlisted in the Texas Cavalry as 1st Sergeant of Company B in Terrell's Reg't. The unit was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department and fought in various locations in Louisiana. He saw action at Mansfield and participated in the operations against the Federal Red River Campaign. The unit was active at Lecompte and Yellow Bayou. Unfortunately, John died, likely at Mansfield, and was hastily buried near there.

Sarah Ann was devastated and not content to let John's body remain next to some battlefield in Louisiana-- so far from home. Here is her story as told by a great-granddaughter...

"She loved to tell her account of her trip to Louisiana by ox-wagon, to exhume the body of her husband, then 11 months buried, and to return it to her own cemetery in North Texas. Preparations for such a trip over dangerous no-man's land between Texas and Louisiana required careful planning. Her five children she entrusted to her mother, but not until she had spun and woven for them a five year supply of clothes, in case she did not return. Taking her husband's two younger brothers, Joe and Daniel McBride, she accomplished her mission in almost flawless manner, travelling only 21 days in going and returning.She chose warm autumn weather for her trip. Upon return she called her neighbors by sounding a hunter's horn, made ready for the funeral, and buried John in the Kuykendall Cemetery near Greenville, TX. She lived within 25 miles of his grave for the rest of her life. At age 86, she was buried beside him on 30 Jan 1922. During the final 23 years of her life, she lived in the home of John and Lela Sheppard in Quinlan, TX and helped to rear their five children."

Estelle Sheppard Lytal, great granddaughter

Sarah Ann's trek was not for the faint of heart.  To say the area was rife with danger is an understatement.  There were bandits and outlaws and natural threats as well from rattlesnakes to river crossings.  Only a year after her trek, one of her uncles and two of his little granddaughters were cruelly slaughtered by Indians. It was rough going in northeast Texas in those days.

Sarah Ann traveled by ox wagon there and back.



Sarah Ann Kuykendall McBride (seated) died in 1922



John's grave marker in the Kuykendall Cemetery in Hunt County, Texas

An interesting aside...

This marriage of John Sherwood McBride and Sarah Ann Kuykendall points to a connection between the families going back a long way.  The connection is evidenced through a third family, the Menasco's.  Two of John Sherwood McBride's paternal uncles married Menasco sisters in the 1830's in Shelby County, Tennessee.  That Menasco family was descended from John and Susanna Menasco of Virginia through their son Jeremiah.

Jeremiah had a brother named James who died in Spanish south Louisiana in 1803.  His will was in Spanish and he names his parents John and Susanna of Virginia.  There is little doubt James and Jeremiah were brothers.

Sarah Ann Kuykendall's mother was a Menasco who descended from this James.  So it's not hard to surmise the three families had a connection going back at least a couple generations from John and Sarah Ann in common locations including Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia.